Strong winds. Here's a photo I took in Scotland last year of waterfalls going uphill. Looked rather like smoke. Very exposed spot (north side of Ben Nevis below Carn Dearg) winds 50-70mph in this case. The waterfalls in the video look a bigger though.

Maybe I’m getting wooshed for this, but the toilet water doesn’t swirl counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere. At least not because of the Coriolis effect. The system “toilet” is much too small in relation to Earth.

It raining. There are probably channels eroded into the top of the cliff that would normally channel the rain water off the side of the cliff as small temporary waterfalls. However there is a powerful wind blowing towards the shore. When the wind hits the cliff the only place it can go is up. So there is a strong updraft that basically forces the water to go upwards as if falls of the cliff.

The last 2 days have been overcast, mostly calm but then short bursts of really heavy rain, thunder and wind. The wind isn't actually all that strong (the July long weekend storms a couple of years ago were much worse, I lost my roof in that). It's actually perfectly safe to be outside at the moment despite there being waterspouts around this morning. The rain isn't even all that heavy.

The cliffs at nearby North Avoca that are shown spraying water up into the air would simply be from the rain coming down in intense bursts. After a burst the cliffs are completely covered in about an inch of rain. Combine that with a reasonably strong wind and you get the water spraying everywhere. Those cliffs are quite high and right on the ocean front so they'd redirect a lot of wind too.

You are trying too hard. It is wind hitting the cliff and diverting upwards. This is the reason hang-gliders love onshore breezes and cliffs because they can stay aloft as long as the breeze blows and endurance holds out.

I upvoted you, but well.....you know how it go's around these parts when it comes to isolated swirly winds. OZ isnt noted for that unless it has a blue ringed octopus,Tipan and some fucking spider in it while its upside down. AND ON FIRE!

My friend in Florida was driving on one of the long bridges from the Florida islands to mainland when one of these headed toward the bridge. Since there was no place to pull over, he floored it, reaching 120+ mph. In his rear view mirror he saw a police car speeding up towards him, lights on and siren wailing. He kept going, faster. The cop car finally caught up with him, came along side and then sped off ahead of him, never looking back.

That's not far off, this actually happens. I was at a summer camp in the mid 90s and three of these water tornadoes spout up over the ocean one night. It was pretty close to land actually, a few hundred feet. (The camp was on the pacific coast) So we're watching it from a lodge, though the windows (horrible idea looking back on it.. I guess they thought since it was a 'water tornado' we were safe by windows..) Anyways, they were wrong because through the rain and the lightning, an eight foot marlin came flying past and crashed through another window higher up and landed behind us. It was the most messed up and awesome thing I have ever seen.

You write the most interesting comments, KILL666. Much better received than KILL365 or KILL247. I hope the username similarity is just a coincidence, you're not them, and you're not just making shit up.

Apologies if this is a baseless accusation. You may just lead an exciting life. May I ask, how many countries have you visited?

If you kill a flying marlin they release a hormone that signals all the other flying marlins to attack that location. The only safe thing to do is throw it back. The LAST thing you want is a swarm of flying marlin attacking you, trust me.

Waterspouts can only attain ~70 MPH winds, which is not going to be chucking 8 foot fish around.

However, he does say that the funnels were associated with thunderstorm activity, which means the funnels could have been been true tornadoes, meaning that it's not impossible that a large piece of debris could have been hurled through his window (though granted an 8 foot trophy fish is quite a stretch).

While these spouts look quite impressive, they are non-tornadic waterspouts and as such present almost no danger at all to people. The only possible risk they present is capsizing boats that are caught in front of them. They dissipate immediately upon reaching land, and rarely have winds exceeding about 90mph.

They form every fall on Lake Erie, and Jet Skis and small boats low in the water can happily cruise right through them. It's high profile power boats and particularly sail boats that are at risk from them.

All that being said, that is a particularly photogenic and impressive looking 'spout. I'd love to see one that well defined up close some time.

I'm not sure we should be calling non-tornadic waterspouts tornadoes, as they don't form from a rotating wall cloud or rapidly rotating storm (which as you say is what makes a supercell) and have quite a different lifecycle.

Really they're just landspouts that have formed over water and in a similar way as they develop the funnel gradually extends from the water to the cloud.They form from the strong updraft that is present under a rapidly growing cumulus (or later, cumulonimbus) cloud.

First vid: At the end you can see the camera stays relatively level (compared to the spout as you begin seeing it at the upper edge.) and the side of the boat drops away from view. (because it (the boat) was picked up and turned 270o )

Cop vid: I won in criminal and civil court. It's just regular corruption, rich people told the cops to harass the boaters. (It's really much bigger than that, and affected a very large (several) boating community(s) in Florida.)

PS: wanna see me go trolling at the cop-shop, and catch one! I get a cop to say "only if you see a metal badge and run would you be fleeing and eluding, if you see something of cloth that says police that dose not mean they are a police officer". ☺

Can someone explain the recent obsession with Gifs (you know instead of just linking to the video)? I hate when I click on something only for it to be an animated gif. Possibly the worst video format I could think of posting anything, I don't understand why people do it.

Yes, I can read. The thing about your standard redditor is that they think that if something is reported but not confirmed then it can be immediately discarded. My comment was addressing their suggestion that all fish fall from the sky due to waterspouts. That is likely the case in many instances but is not proven. There are multiple sources indicating that there may be other unknown causes for it as well.

Edit (note): I am in no way purporting that trailer houses should be struck by tornadoes. Rather I am simply pointing out the fact that tornadoes are magnetically attracted to these facilities. Its a fact people. Let's move along now.

I was canoeing in my teens like 15 years ago, and I was hit by one of these. Totally serious.

There were three canoes, two of us in each, and we were paddling along on an otherwise peaceful day a few hundred meters from the shore of a large lake in northern manitoba. We were about an hour ahead of a larger group of slower paddlers.

Anyhow, out of no where, the wind picks up and just keeps getting stronger and stronger. I should to the other guys that we have to point the canoes into the wind, to avoid being rolled over. We did that, but the wind kept getting stronger and water started blowing around like mad. It was getting intense, water was being sucked into the air right near us, and what looked like a funnel was forming and coming right at us.

The water-nado hit our canoes, lifting one partially from the water and capsizing the other two. I was in the rear of the air-lifted canoe. It felt like someone had a firehose full blast on my face and body. Our canoe was lifted and flung, the the others were underneath their upside-down canoes (swimming under them, head inside for air). We did the same, but by the time we were getting to the canoe the damn thing disappeared, the sun came out, and along come the rest of the canoes.

We ask them if they saw what had happened to us, and if they were OK etc. They saw nothing, had no strong wind, etc. My dad was with that group, and they thought we were lying or nuts, and to this day never believed us.

Completely man made and the helicopters just happened to be there to catch the footage..... They are testing the technology , once﻿ they perfect it we are in trouble. I blame the mass fish and bird deaths on the testing of this weather modification. Needs to stop, if the sun is getting too hot and is going to roast the earth and its people let us roast with dignity.Instead they pollute our skys and roast the wildlife in the sea.
leeroybrowns 10 minutes ago

Was once up at Lake Erie at a friends condo for the weekend, beautiful day, no clouds in the sky, no forecast of rain, suddenly, the sky darkened over the lake and over the course of 4 hours my brother and I watched 8 waterspouts and several other funnels. It was awesome.

These things scare the shit out of me much more than regular 'naders. They are just so creepy. Also is there a reason why all the waterspouts I see are always skinny and creepy? I've never seen a massive F4-ish type waterspout. Maybe I don't want to....

So... what would happen if you swam into one of those? I mean, you wouldn't get your head bashed in by objects so, would you drown? Would you fly up into it and not be able to breathe?
Or would you get flung into the ocean like weeeeeeeeeeeee.

what is it with the weather in oz over the last few years? they've been getting a hiding from dust storms, fire storms, torrential floods, freakish golf-ball sized hail, tornados etc. I guess its not all bar-b's and wifebeating good times there then.

Being sent to Australia as a prisoner back in the days was basically a death sentence. Everything there wants to kill you. Who would have thought prisoners survive , flourish, and get hard core to the point where not a single fuck is given for the deadly deadly poisonous everything !